Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of July! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• July kicks off with GeeKermesse on 8 July in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. GeeKermesse is an event where all kind of fans can gather and have fun. Their doors are open to superheroes, zombies, space explorers, detectives, magical girls, wizards, Saiyans, people lost in time and everybody else! Get your geek out!
• In the U.S. and Harry Potter fandom, Ascendio is taking place from 11 July to 15 July at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Approximately 1,000 fans will take part in this mix of fan and academic conference. Two of the days will feature a “Formal Programming” schedule of presentations, panels, workshops and roundtables including the Quill Track focusing on books and writing. Some of the authors, agents, editors and publishers include Lev Grossman (author), Cecilia Tan (publisher & author), and Omnific (publishing company).

  Importantly for us in these parts, the OTW will have an information table about the org at Ascendio. So if you'll be there, stop by and say hello to our volunteers!

• Farther north, thousands more fans will be descending on Otakon. Started in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999, Otakon is "the convention of the otaku generation: by fans, for fans" and they will be holding their 19th event in 2012. Otakon celebrates anime, manga, and all facets of Asian pop culture with a variety of activities, workshops and contests. The con will be held from 27 July 2012 - 29 July 2012 at the Baltimore Convention Center.
• We wrap up with SysAdmin day on 28 July. The holiday exists to show appreciation for the work of systems administrators and other IT workers. The first System Administrator Appreciation Day was celebrated on July 28, 2000. There are many suggestions for the proper observation of the holiday, the most common being cake and ice cream, so if you're reading this, thank your SysAdmins!

A Call for Papers this month comes from Katherine Larsen (klarsen at gwu.edu) and Lynn Zubernis (LZubernis at wcupa.edu) for the book Supernatural (Fan Phenomena) to be published by Intellect Press. Please send an abstract (300 words) and CV or resume by 30 Aug 2012. Final chapters of 3000-3500 words will be due 01 Dec 2012. The final book will include ten chapters. More information about the book scope can be found here.

This month we have received a request for research participation from Robin Brenner, who is pulling together a presentation for the American Library Association Annual Conference 2012 and at the Young Adult Literature Symposium 2012. She writes that:

"This survey is here to gather information about how readers over the age of 13 have and continue to interact with their favorite media through fan works including fanfiction, fan art, and fan videos. Specifically we are interested in how participating in fandom has influenced your reading, writing, creativity, and literacy."

and

"[I]dentities will be concealed and pseudonyms may be used if requested. If a respondent over 18 has indicated we may do so, we may quote specific responses in a future print publication, but would only do so after we have their express, written permission.

We will be using the information gathered from this survey to report back to our colleagues in the library world about fandom, fan work, and participatory fan culture and its connections to reading, authorship, literacy, and creativity. We will not be using any identifying information in our reports except general age categories, and we will never connect your personal information with our survey results.

If you would like to grant us permission to use your full name and age in reporting about this survey, there will be an option at the finish of the survey to let us know your information and to grant us permission to use your name. If you are between the ages of 13 and 18, we will not publish your personal information. All survey takers must be at least 13 years of age."

You may also see Robin's resume and list of other publications. Her contact information is listed there, and you may also contact her with questions through:

Robin Brenner
Teen Librarian
Brookline Public Library
361 Washington Street
Brookline, MA 02445
robin@noflyingnotights.com
617-730-2370

The research results will be shared on her blog this fall: http://noflyingnotights.com

If you have requests for research participation, please view our policy for inclusion at our website.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of June! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• Coming up next week is CON.TXT. CON.TXT is a multi-fandom slash con held biennially (in even-numbered years) since 2006 and features panel discussions, and art and vid shows. It will be held this year at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in in Silver Spring, Maryland from 15 June 2012 - 17 June 2012. For more information visit con-text.net
• At the end of the month we can celebrate Tau Day. In 2010, Michael Hartl posted an essay called The Tau Manifesto on his personal website. In it, he proposed using the Greek letter tau (τ) to represent that number instead. Hartl argued that an existing symbol like τ would face fewer barriers to adoption than a new symbol like the "three-legged pi." A number of news outlets reported on "Tau Day", a holiday proposed in The Tau Manifesto' for June 28 to honour the number 2π.

In addition to this month's events we also wanted to announce that we will be using the Events Calendar posts to publicize academic calls for papers, and these will also be added to our website Event Calendar. So if you have a CFP coming up for a journal or conference, feel free to submit it to us via the Communications committee contact form. Please keep in mind that while the Event Calendar is available at all times, this announcement post is only made at the start of every month, so please allow for sufficient lead time.

This month we have received a request for research participation from Dianna Fielding, who is writing an Honor's Thesis towards her Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She writes that:

"I hope to make this part of my doctoral dissertation. It has received approval from IRB. I will be conducting semi-structured interviews with authors and readers of genderswap fanfiction. I chose these authors in particular because genderswap is generally unstudied (unlike slash!) and not very many scholars have actually talked to fans about their work. In addition to the interviews I will be engaging in participant-observation by joining a genderswap community. This last part is still tentative, because it is difficult for me to find an active community."

You may see the consent form and contact information for Dianna here if you would be interested in helping her with her study: Consent and Contact Form.

Her thesis will be available through the Hamline University library and will also be posted to her blog: http://www.sociologyfornerds.com/

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• Jedi and Sith are likely to unite for Star Wars Day on the 4th of May. The date for this annual fandom celebration of the franchise is in part due to a pun on the date itself. Whether you're planning on hosting a marathon of the entire film series, immersing yourself in any of the 100+ video games, or picking up one of the several Expanded Universe novels, let us be the first to say "May the Fourth be with you."
• Comic book collectors and fans should mark their calendars for Free Comic Book Day on May 5. During Free Comic Book Day, held annually on the first Saturday in May, participating comic book shops around the world offer free comics to anyone who stops into their stores. Check the Store Locator to see if your local shop is participating and check with your shop's staff regarding any specific rules and guidelines.
• Geek Pride Day on May 25 is a celebration of nerd and geek culture that spans across several fandoms. The day commemorates the original release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977, Towel Day for fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the Glorious 25 May for members of the Discworld fandom.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!

Welcome to our first monthly Events Calendar roundup! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event-type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• Currently for April, we have the Fanwork Programming Development for Dragon*Con in the U.S. Dragon*Con is the largest multimedia, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film. There is an initiative underway to create programming devoted to fic, vids, podfic, zines, and fanart at Dragon*Con. The OTW is seeking OTW-related fans who might be interested in participating or in being a panelist. This year, Dragon*Con will be held Labor Day weekend (August 31 - September 3, 2012) in Atlanta, GA. Anyone interested can comment at an organizational community on Dreamwidth.
• In addition, April brings Yuri's Night: The World Space Party on April 12, celebrating, commemorating, and driving interest in the exploration of outer space.
• A more snarky holiday comes around on April 23, Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, which began in 2007. The holiday encourages the posting of fiction online for free to promote online and digital publishing. It takes place on the same day as World Book and Copyright Day, created by UNESCO in 1995 to champion reading, publishing and copyright.
• On the homefront, the Archive of Our Own and Fanlore have launched the April Showers promotion to encourage fans to upload their fanworks to the AO3, and fannish stories and information to Fanlore, particularly if the content is for underrepresented fandoms. Also of general importance, the OTW will begin its annual membership drive, which will be held from April 18-25. Expect to hear more about that in coming weeks!

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!